The World’s Pain, the Enemy’s Triumph

I’m sure everyone has heard about the terrorist attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. These attacks no longer surprise me, and I find myself experiencing the same feeling of ennui that I got after hearing about what seemed like the millionth school shooting.

This has, sadly enough, become commonplace. It is and it will continue to be the new state of affairs for as long as our world leaders vacillate and talk and take no action against what is undeniably a threat. I have no words of anti-terrorism wisdom, just sadness because of the fact that nowhere is safe and a hint of disgust at how the enemy managed to win twice.

Ariana Grande is a children’s TV actress turned pop star, much like Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus before her. As such, she fell into the same downward spiral and became an icon of self-centeredness, coquettishly singing about sex and dancing and parties.

I heard that 9- and 10-year-old children were at her concert… children who never should have been there in the first place, because this is what they were listening to:

From the song “Love Me Harder”:

And if in the moment you bite your lipWhen I get you moaning you know it’s realCan you feel the pressure between your hips?I’ll make it feel like the first time

I’m talkin’ to yaSee you standing over there with your bodyFeeling like I wanna rock with your bodyAnd we don’t gotta think ’bout nothin’ (‘Bout nothin’)

We live in a strange world. It is sad and distressing that the terrorist may have focused on the Ariana Grande concert because perhaps he knew that children, the most innocent ones, would be there. But it is also sad that children’s parents allow them to listen to this kind of music with these lyrics.

I am praying for the victims, for the survivors, and for the world to come to its senses. We can’t let the enemy keep winning.